


Chance Encounters

by AngeNoir



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Friendship/Love, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-18
Updated: 2014-08-18
Packaged: 2018-02-13 16:43:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2157840
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AngeNoir/pseuds/AngeNoir
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie wasn't exactly expecting to have his vacation taken over by Scorpius Malfoy - and, by association, Draco Malfoy. He certainly wasn't prepared for the interest he suddenly found in the elder Malfoy.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chance Encounters

**Author's Note:**

  * For [csichick_2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/csichick_2/gifts).



Charlie looked up from the inventory he’d been doing at the sound of the front door opening. He’d taken over at the shop pretty much only because Ron and George were hungover from Bill and Fleur’s anniversary dinner, and he’d been assured that no one came into the store on Monday mornings.

Clearly, Ron had made that assurance without taking Draco Malfoy into consideration.

“Can I help you, Mr. Malfoy?”

Malfoy paused, looking around in surprise, and then his cheeks colored lightly. “Just browsing,” he said quietly.

Charlie nodded – what else could he do, really? – and returned to recording down the inventory.

***

Malfoy came in the shop later that afternoon, this time with a too-serious child in tow. Charlie looked up, surprised, and then laughed a little. “Hey, Malfoy. Who’s the little kid?”

Malfoy glanced down at the little boy who was pressed against his leg. “Go ahead, Scor.”

The little boy solemnly said, “My name is Scorpius Malfoy. Pleased to meet you.”

“What a proper little man!” Charlie said, coming out from behind the desk and squatting down. “Absolutely precious. You buying a toy today?”

The kid nodded, and Charlie looked up at Malfoy. “A father-son day out?”

“Mommy’s busy,” the kid said before Malfoy could say anything.

And, hey, it wasn’t that Charlie had even made any obvious moves, but he’d have been lying if he said he didn’t notice how nicely Malfoy filled out his clothes now, and this kid was obviously Malfoy’s son, which meant Malfoy was married. That should have been the end of it, even as he joked around enough to get the kid smiling and kept his thoughts as pure as he could.

***

It didn’t help that Malfoy wouldn’t stop hanging around.

***

Not that Charlie was around a lot – he did in fact have his own job, he was just on his two-week vacation but at loose ends if he was at home with Mum and Dad, and had only been helping out George and Ron that first day. Still, since he wasn’t at home and he wasn’t minding the joke shop, he stuck around Diagon Alley and generally window-shopped and found books to lose himself in for hours at a time.

It was only two or three days after Charlie had seen Malfoy in the joke shop that he bumped into Malfoy and little Scorpius at the bakery. It seemed odd that Malfoy would still be hanging around Diagon Alley, but perhaps he had a business meeting of some kind and needed the kid along.

In any case, when Scorpius saw Charlie, he very politely and properly detached from his father’s side to ask Charlie to sit with them. Charlie looked up to see Malfoy shifting uneasily, that soft flush tinting his cheeks pink. “If your father doesn’t mind,” he cautioned.

Which was how he ate lunch with Malfoy and Scorpius.

***

It became a regular thing – if Scorpius saw Charlie, he’d drag Charlie back to wherever Malfoy was, and considering the fact that Charlie saw Malfoy pretty much every single day, the fourth day into their impromptu meet-ups, when Scorpius was busily perusing the children’s literature section in Flourish and Blotts, Charlie turned to Malfoy and said awkwardly, “You know, if I’m messing up your father-son days, just let me know, yeah? I mean, your son’s amazing but it can’t be fun to hang out with me all the time.”

Malfoy turned to glance away, affecting disinterest, and Charlie was strongly reminded of the Norwegian Ridgeback hatchlings that acted like cats in that regard. His hands itched to reach out but this was a human, not a dragon, for all that Malfoy’s first name was Draco. He didn’t have permission.

“I have my son for the week,” Malfoy finally said. “I don’t know how to keep his attention, but he likes you. You’re not interrupting anything.”

Charlie squinted at Malfoy, unpacking those three sentences to come to a variety of assumptions and suppositions that he could only wonder at instead of verify. Finally, he cleared his throat and said, “Well, if we’re going to make this regular, why not try something other than bumping into each other at shops? If you have your son for the week, I assume you’d want to do something more fun than wander around Diagon Alley.”

Tentatively, Malfoy turned his head back to Charlie. “What do you suggest?” he asked.

***

“I didn’t even know there was a public zoo here,” Draco muttered.

Charlie grinned. The wizarding zoo he had visited as a child was still there, still functioning, and still had a variety of species, not to mention many nonhumans as workers as well. Scorpius was wide-eyed and amazed, running from exhibit to exhibit, and Draco – no longer Malfoy in Charlie’s mind, and yeah, Charlie was in lust with this man – looked just as excited, if far more restrained about it. “It’s free to kids on Wednesdays; my mum used to bring us here if the weather was good. I seriously considered being an employee here throughout my fourth year at Hogwarts.”

“Why only when the weather was good?” Draco said curiously.

Charlie shrugged. “Partly because if the weather was bad, mum wanted to make sure the enchantments on our house didn’t wear away because of the natural magic in storms, but in part because she didn’t want to have to deal with sopping wet children. You can’t do casual magic here; it could disrupt the enchantments on the different habitats. Everything’s very balanced, you see – we use the same kind of balancing formula in the dragon sanctuary to keep the different breeds happy and safe.”

Draco smiled, and it was a genuine one, one that made Charlie’s chest warm, and the two of them trailed after the whirlwind that was Scorpius. After a few minutes, Draco cleared his throat and said quietly, “His mother… doesn’t approve of him running wild and unheeding in the streets. I’m glad he’s got this here.”

“I’m glad he likes it,” Charlie said, deciding to sidestep the mother issue entirely. “Zoos can be a hit or miss with kids; some instantly love it, and the others instantly hate it, no middle ground.”

“Well.” Draco remained silent a few minutes longer before continuing, “Well, he really likes it. Thank you.” Again, Draco fell silent, and Charlie knew enough about body language to know that Draco wanted to ask something but didn’t know how.

When a few heartbeats went by in awkward silence, Charlie ran a hand through his shaggy hair – time for a bit of neatening, really – and offered quietly, “Look, Draco, I don’t really want to pry, or make you say something you’re not ready for, but you said that you had Scorpius for the week.”

Draco’s back was stiff, and he was looking about as if expecting to see a spy watching their every move. “Yes,” he said finally.

“I’d like to keep seeing you, even when Scorpius leaves,” Charlie blurted out. “I mean, I’ve only got about five days left of my vacation, but I… would like to get to know you. More.”

At that, Draco turned to face Charlie, considering, and Charlie was again reminded of those curious hatchlings that wanted to remain aloof but couldn’t stifle their curiosity long enough to do so. “I – wouldn’t mind keeping up with you by owlpost,” Draco finally said. “And we can go to – to a nicer restaurant, after. One that you don’t have to worry about a child spilling things on you.”

Charlie laughed, because Scorpius hadn’t meant to and been so deathly apologetic and solemn, swearing that he would ‘do everything in his power to make up’ for knocking over his glass of juice and getting Charlie’s clothes. “I liked that,” he said, and then flushed. “I mean, liked eating. With the both of you. Not the – I mean, it wasn’t as if the juice ruined the evening, but yeah, the juice bit was not that great, but the evening as a whole was great.”

Draco chuckled, and then promptly looked mortified of doing such a thing. Charlie grinned gleefully.

“Father, did you see?!” Scorpius gasped excitedly, rushing up to the two of them. “Come on!”

Draco allowed himself to be tugged away, and Charlie followed at a slightly slower pace. His family may not understand this, and hell, Charlie himself didn’t fully get it, but right now, watching Scorpius’s eyes light up and Draco dote on his son…

Yeah, Charlie wanted to try.


End file.
